12. The Baal Shem Tov and the River

00:15 Hello, children. Kinderlach. Welcome back. I've got a story f- for you today. Whoa, an amazing story. I heard this story from a very old Rav, a Hasid, and when he was a little boy, he heard it from an old Hasid in Poland, and this Rav heard it when he was a little boy from an old Hasid in Russia. The story goes like this: It's the Baal Shem Tov. As you know, the Baal Shem Tov was a big tzadik, and a great, great chacham in the entire world. Everybody loved the Baal Shem Tov, but the Baal Shem Tov wasn't that famous when he was younger. When he was younger, the Baal Shem Tov made sure to hide his greatness. He didn't want people to know that he's a great tzadik, and that he's a big chacham. He pretended to be very stupid and ignorant. He didn't know anything. When people asked him, "Oh, oh, do you know, can you read this Mishnah or this Chumash?" He would say, "No, I don't know. I, I don't know what it means." He'd pretend that he doesn't know anything. And he lived in a small village. He had his wife. He was married and had two little kids, and he was also very, very poor. Extremely poor. He had very little money, and the babies, the kids, and the wife, and the Baal Shem Tov himself would starve. Very often they would be so hungry, and they wouldn't have money to buy food. But the Baal Shem Tov didn't

01:58 care. He just served Hashem and davened and learned, but he didn't want anybody to know that he's a big tzadik. In the village where the Baal Shem Tov lived, there was a marketplace. A bur- a marketplace is usually a place in the middle of the city, which is an open, big open space, like a plain, a big, plain open space where people would come from farms. Farmers would come from around the village and bring their stuff from their farms to be sold on the, in the market. Some people grew on their farm apples and oranges, so they would bring the apples and oranges into the village to the market, and people would come and buy their apples and oranges. Other people would grow vegetables like tomatoes and cucumbers and, and lettuce, and they would bring some of those stuff. They would take it from their garden and from their farm, and they would bring it to the village and go to the marketplace and put a little stand and sell their vegetables. There was a lady, she was Jewish. She also had a farm. But what she had on her farm was cows and chickens. And as you know, cows give milk, so she would make a lot of milk, and she made a lot of eggs because chickens lay eggs, as you know. And you know what you make with milk? You can make cheese, butter, yogurt, cream. You can do all kinds of things with milk. So she would make all of that

03:26 on her farm, and she had a lot of it. She can't eat it all herself. She was gonna make money. How is she gonna make money? She was traveling every Monday and Thursday from her farm that was outside the village, and she would drive into the village with her wagon and her horse, and she would take all her milk and all her eggs and cheese and butter, bring it to the village, and go to the marketplace and sell it, and she would make a nice amount of money, good money. Now, this woman had a feeling that the Baal Shem Tov, who nobody knew was the great Baal Shem Tov... People thought it was just a stupid, uh, ignorant person who doesn't know anything, can't learn, and doesn't... barely knows how to read the Alef Beis. But she thought, "No, no, no, no, I think he's a big tzadik. He's hiding it." She also knew that he was very poor, so she said, "You know what? I wanna do a big mitzvah. I'm gonna go and help the Baal Shem Tov and his family." So every Monday and Thursday, when she came in from the farm on her wagon and her horse, she would drive in to the, to the village to sell her milk on the market. She would pass by early in the morning when nobody saw her, and she would put by the door of the Baal Shem Tov's little house, she would put a few bottles of milk, uh, some eggs, cheese

04:54 and butter and yogurt. Would... Everything. She'd put everything by the door, and then in the morning, when the Baal Shem Tov's wife opened up the door to go outside, she'd see all the milk and say, "Wow, somebody gave us all this stuff. Now our kids don't have to be hungry." And she did it in a way that nobody would know that she's the one who's giving it because you know the biggest mitzvah to give tzedakah is when you do it when nobody knows that you're doing it. So nobody says, "Hey, he's so great. He gives tzedakah." Nobody knows that you did it. That's a very big mitzvah, right? So that's what she did every single week. She would go on her way into town, into the village. She would go past the Baal Shem Tov's house, take from her wagon a bunch of milk and butter and cheese and eggs, a lot, a lot, a lot of them, put them all by the door, and then she would disappear, go away quickly, so nobody would see that she's the one who's giving it. She was a real tzedekis. One day, something terrible happened. Something really, really terrible. Oh, no. As you know, in Russia, there can be a lot of snow in the winter- Lots of snow. And in the mountains especially, if you look up on the mountains, tons of snow. And what happens when the winter is over and it gets a little bit warmer, like this time of the year, you know,

06:18 now it's getting warmer, we're getting closer to the summer, it's gonna get warmer and warmer. What happens to the snow? It starts melting. But the snow that's on the mountains, if it melts very fast, it turns all into water, then you got lots of water coming down from a hill, and that can be dangerous. Because if a lot of water comes down from the hill very fast, and if there's a river somewhere, it's gonna go straight into the river, and the river's gonna get so full it's gonna overflow, and it's gonna rise, and the water's gonna flood everything, and who knows? People might drown. Now, what happened with that woman, it was after the winter, it was just beginning to warm up, and all the ice and the snow on the mountains started melting very fast. And when they melt very fast, there's lots and lots of water, huge amount of water coming quickly, rushing down from the mountain, going down to the valley, and she was going over a bridge. There was a little river which she was crossing on the bridge, and it says big sign. There was a big sign by the bridge said, "Don't cross the bridge when the snow is melting on the mountains," because you know why? Because when the snow melts on the mountains and it goes very fast down, the river will overflow and get so high and so deep that the bridge is gonna be full of water, and then people can drown, fall into the

07:49 river. But she didn't listen to the sign, and she crossed the bridge. And just then, a huge amount of water came down from the mountains, from the melted snow, and flooded the whole river and the bridge, and everything on the bridge fell into the water, into the river, including this woman with her eggs and cheese, and butter and milk, and the horse and the wagon. And the woman herself too fell into the water, and they drowned. Oh, no. This was a terrible thing. The Baal Shem Tov heard about this terrible thing that happened to this woman, and the Baal Shem Tov knew ‎ברוח הקודש‎, even though the woman never told him that she's the one who gave him milk every week, but he knew it because he was a tzadik. He knew that it was this woman who did it for him and helped him and saved him, so he wouldn't be starving. He knew what a great mitzvah she did. He was very upset that she died and she drowned in the river. So he was so upset and he said, "This river, this nasty river that made this tzadekes, this woman drown, I make... I say, I say that this river should never have water again. It should dry up, because this river did that to this lady. There should be no water going through that river. Be totally dry." As soon as Baal Shem Tov said that... You know when a tzadik like the Baal Shem Tov says something like this, "I

09:37 say, and I command, and I decree that this river should have no water." And in Shamayim, they listen, because when a tzadik says something, they listen. They do what he wants because he does what Hashem wants. So Hashem says, "You know what? A tzadik does everything I want, I'll do what he wants too. So if he says there should be no water in the river, no water in the river." That river dried up, had not a drop of water left in it. But in Shamayim there was a big, big noise. "What happened? What happened?" A malach came. A malach in Shamayim came and said, "Wait a second. That's not fair. The Baal Shem Tov said that this river should have no water. Well, I'm in charge of that river." Every river, every tree, every blade of grass has a malach in Shamayim that takes care of it, makes sure that it grows properly, that everything is good with it, takes care of it. This river also had a malach, and this malach was very upset. "My river that I take care of, you made it dry up completely?" "Oh, no." "Why?" "Because this woman was nice to the Baal Shem Tov, so the Baal Shem Tov is upset. That's because she was nice to him, that's why he was upset." "But why should we listen to him? It's not the river's fault. It was the woman's fault. Sh- she-- There was a sign on the bridge that you shouldn't cross the bridge after the winter

11:03 when the snow melts on the mountains. She didn't listen, and she went anyway, so she put herself in danger. It was her fault that she died. Why is the Baal Shem Tov punishing the river? It's my river." Oh, in Shamayim, the Beth Din... You know the Beth Din? The great tzadikim in Shamayim who listen to every case, they listened to the malach and they said, "Oh, he's right. The malach is right. Why should we listen to the Baal Shem Tov here? He's punishing the river, but it's not really the river's fault. It's the fault of the woman. She shouldn't have crossed the ri- the bridge in a dangerous time. It was dangerous. It said so on the sign." Well, then another malach came and said, "Wait, wait. But the Baal Shem Tov is a tzadik, and when a tzadik says something, you have to listen to him." So they decided in Shamayim, the Beth Din... You guys know what the Beth Din is? All the big חכמים get together and they decide what should happen. And they decided- You know what? The river must dry up because Ba'al Shem Tov is a tzadik, and when a tzadik says something, it must happen. However, the Ba'al Shem Tov could never enjoy the fact that it's dry. In other words, when a river is dry, you know what happens? You can actually cross from one side to the other on foot or with a wagon. There's no water there. It's like you just walk straight on the

12:34 ground. That makes it very easy for people to travel from one side to the other. They don't have to go around and around and look for a bridge. When there was water there, you couldn't just go into the water. You'd drown. So how did people cross the river? They had to find a bridge. Sometimes you had to go miles and miles and miles, very far away, many kilometers, right? To find the bridge. Now that there's no water there, it's easy. You need to go to this and this town, to this and this city, it's very easy now. I can just cross here. There's no water here. So the Ba'al Shem Tov may never, never use this shortcut. You guys know what a shortcut is? Getting to the other side because there's no water. He's gonna have to use a bridge even now. Why? Because he cannot enjoy that which he himself made. He made this river to be dry. He's not allowed to enjoy it. He's not allowed to, you know, use it for himself, and not even his children and his grandchildren. In other words, if they do cross that place, and they do enjoy going across without having to look for a bridge because there's no water, you know what will happen? The river can start flowing again. Water will start gushing rapidly, sh- quickly through that river and can drown the Ba'al Shem Tov or his children or his grandchildren or great-grandchildren. Nobody in the family of the Ba'al Shem Tov is

14:07 allowed to cross that place now. Other people could, but not the Ba'al Shem Tov, because he's the one who punished the river, so he cannot enjoy that punishment. You guys understand that? Wow. Ba'al Shem Tov was a big tzadik. He heard what the decision was in Shomayim, so he told his children never ever cross that place where there used to be a river and water. Always look for a bridge to cross that place because if you don't, something terrible might happen to you. The river's gonna start flowing with lots of water, and you might drown. So don't do that. One day, Ba'al Shem Tov passed away. He went to Gan Eden, and his son, Reb Zvi, became a Rebbe, a tzadik. He was now the Rebbe s-- and he was a great tzadik. One day, somebody, a person who lived in a far city, sent a letter to Reb Zvi, "I'd like you to come to the bris of my son. I'm making a bris this Sunday. I'd like you to come and be the sandek." You guys know what a sandek is? The person who holds the baby on their lap when the mohel does the bris. That's a very special honor. "I want you, Reb Zvi, the great tzadik, to be honored with being the sandek of my son's bris." And Reb Zvi, of course, agreed. It's a big mitzvah to do that. But how do you get to that town? It's far away, and the bris is Sunday morning. So he decided

15:47 to leave Motzaei Shabbos, late at night. He asked his wagon driver, Ivan, and told him to prepare the wagon and the horses because we're gonna go on a trip because we have to get to a certain city by Sunday morning, so we're gonna have to ride all night to get to that place. And so Ivan prepared the horses and the wagon, and Reb Zvi got onto the wagon in the middle of the night, and Ivan got onto the front and started whipping the horses. "Yay! Okay, take off." And the horses took off, and they're... And the Reb Zvi was a big tzadik. He doesn't waste his time. When he sits in a wagon for hours and hours taking a trip, he thinks about Torah, he thinks about Hashem. He closed his eyes, and he was deep in thought, and he was thinking about great holy things, about Torah, about Hasidus, a meimar. Um, and he didn't notice that Ivan came to that very place where there used to be that river, that river which his father, Reb Zvi's father, the Ba'al Shem Tov, had instructed to be dry, not have water. And the Ba'al Shem Tov instructed his son never to cross that place unless there's a bridge there, 'cause the water's gonna start gushing through that place again. But Ivan didn't know about this, and Reb Zvi was so deep in thought he didn't notice that they were at that place where that river was. So Ivan just started riding through that place, 'cause

17:23 it was a shortcut. It was easy to get to the other side, and he's just riding through, and as soon as he got to the middle of where the river was, suddenly a huge amount of water, waterfalls, huge waves of water started coming so quickly into that area, into that place, that Reb Zvi and Ivan and the horse and the wagon all fell into this wild, wild waters with waves piling up so high. You couldn't even see how high it was. And Reb Zvi realized that he's going to die, and he remembered, "Oi, yoi, yoi, yoi, yoi, yoi, what did I do?" Oh, I forgot. My tati told me not to go through this place, but I was not paying attention. I was deep in thought. And even didn't know what am I gonna do? We're all dying now. We're all in the water swimming, trying to swim, but we can't. The water is so wild and so big and so much. It was very dangerous. And as Reb Zvi says, "Okay, I'm gonna say Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad, and do teshuva," because a Jew does teshuva before he dies, and says Shema Yisrael. Suddenly, Reb Zvi, between the big waves of the water, sees from far away, and it's in the middle of the night, it's pitch dark, but he sees a light, a light in the pitch dark darkness of the night. He sees a light from far away, and it's coming closer and closer and closer, and he was like

19:07 very surprised. What's this light? And the light is getting bigger and bigger, and it's coming closer to him. And then when the light came very, very clear and big, he saw... Do you know who he saw? Who did he see in the light? His holy, heilike father, the Baal Shem Tov. The Baal Shem Tov came from Gan Eden, from Shamayim. And Baal Shem Tov didn't say a word, nothing. He just stuck out his hand, grabbed Reb Zvi, his son, in the water, and took him out of the water and put him down outside the water and saved his life, so Reb Zvi didn't drown. Reb Zvi was so shocked. He was so shocked he almost died. His father came from Gan Eden and pulled him out and then disappeared. He didn't see his father again. Oh, Reb Zvi did not go to the bris. He went back home, and he was so shaken and so shocked for what he just had, what happened to him. He went to sleep, and when he slept, he had a dream. Who did he see in his dream? His father, the Baal Shem Tov. And Baal Shem Tov said to him, "My son, Reb Zvi, I'm very disappointed that you didn't listen to what I told you never to go through that place, because you're gonna die if you go through that place. It's gonna be full of water there. But I came to save you once. I can never do this again. If you go through again that

20:49 same place, I will not be able to come and save you. You know why? Because I didn't know when I came into this world from Gan Eden to save you, I didn't realize how difficult it would be for me to be in this world." Kinderlach, let me try to explain what the Baal Shem Tov said. Gan Eden is a very holy place. It's a beautiful place. It's a place where neshamas feel Hashem all the time. They sing to Hashem. Every second they sing, and they enjoy it so much. And malachim sing. It's such a beautiful place. There's no averos in Gan Eden. There's no bad things in Gan Eden, only beautifully good things. Hashem, everybody loves Hashem there. Everybody feels Hashem there. Not like this world, where we don't feel Hashem so much. We have to learn a lot of Torah and do a lot of mitzvahs, then you feel a little bit Hashem. But this world, this physical world, is not so, uh, such a holy place. People do averos in here. So a neshamah, like the Baal Shem Tov's neshamah who lived in Gan Eden for so long, ugh, to come into the world where there's averos, people do bad things. And even to save his son, but, uh, it was a bad place. You know, a great tzaddik once said that when a neshamah from Gan Eden is next to an averah, he sees somebody doing an averah, it, like, smells. Like, can you imagine you have a rotten piece of food

22:20 that smells so badly, like a rotten fish, and it smells so badly. For a neshamah, an averah is the same thing. Like, the neshamah can't take it, like, ugh, it makes him sick. A person can do an averah against-- something against Hashem, a neshamah can't stand it. It's like, ugh, disgusting. So for the Baal Shem Tov to come into this world was not a very pleasant thing. It was very uncomfortable. It made him feel very bad. He says, "Had I known how bad I would feel coming from Gan Eden into this world, I don't know if I would come and save you. It was too difficult to come into this world. So please don't do it again." And Reb Zvi, from that day on, made sure to tell his children and grandchildren never, never to cross that place where the river used to be. And they lived happily ever after. Good Shabbos, and the moral of the story is always listen to the Baal Shem Tov. Always listen to the tzaddikim. Always listen to the Rebbe, that they know best. And yes, sometimes we're in trouble, the Rebbe comes and helps us out. He saves us sometimes, but we need to not do this too, too often. Good Shabbos.